Posters presented at the 12th International Conference on the Science of Hard Materials (ICSHM12) Bentota, Sri Lanka 11-15th March 2024. These included an in-depth investigation of low activation methods and the effects of diffusion at the interface with a focus on cWC-steel joins.The second poster further investigated the radiation response of cWCs in terms of the radiation response of different phases present in cWCs and the effects of irradiation on microhardness.

Further work on low-activation joining methods show that copper-based brazing compounds are credible methods for joining cWC and RSBs to steels. This work investigates the effects of using Cu powder compared to Cu foil alongside other additions such as Fe powder and Cr₃C₂.

Considerable diffusion between Cu was observed for both the steel and cWC interfaces as investigated by SEM-EDX and microhardness profiles. The depth of the diffusion zone was observed to be a good match as predicted by the ThermoCalc program DICTRA.

EBSD was the principal method for evaluating radiation-induced changes at different depths from the incident face (IF) of cWCs. Evaluation of the band slope (BS) and pattern quality (PQ) enabled radiation-induced changes to be distinguished from polishing induced stress.

Use of Machine Intelligence (MI) enabled a qualitative evaluation of stress with irradiated samples showin significantly reduced PQ and BS values relative to controls.

Three phases are present in cWCs; WC; a mixed Fe/Cr/W carbide (M₁₂C) and Fe BCC (Fe-8Cr alloy).

Fe BCC was the most radiosensitive

M₁₂C was the least radiosensitive but more sensitive to proton irradiation.

Most of the zero solutions attributed to WC due to grain boundaries. WC grains show considerable dislocation presence prior to irradiation with different radiation types and temperatures causing distinct changes to the different phases as observed by TEM.